Settlers vandalise West Bank cemetery

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - Jewish settlers vandalised a Muslim cemetery on Sunday after the Israeli army razed a West Bank outpost built by a militant settler leader without government authorisation, Palestinians said.

Residents of Harat al-Jabari neighbourhood in the city of Hebron, a frequent flashpoint between Palestinians and Jewish settlers, blamed settlers for spraying paint on Muslim graves as well as puncturing the tyres of some 24 cars.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said an investigation had been launched but could not confirm that the vandals were settlers.

Hours earlier, an Israeli army bulldozer demolished the makeshift dwelling of Noam Federman, a hardline settler leader. Police arrested four settlers who attacked a policeman and tried to set fire to a police car during the demolition.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert condemned settlers who incited violence against Israeli soldiers and policemen and vowed to bring them to justice.

"We will show zero tolerance towards calls of this kind," Olmert said at Sunday's cabinet meeting. "We are fed up with this verbal violence."

Palestinians and human rights groups have long complained that Israeli security forces do little to curb settler violence in the occupied West Bank that recently included stepped-up attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters.

A U.S.-sponsored "road map" for peace, reaffirmed at the Annapolis summit last year that relaunched Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, calls on Israel to freeze all settlement activity on land Palestinians want for a state.

(Reporting by Mamoun Wazwaz; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Caroline Drees)